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- From: erich@csdl.cs.tamu.edu (Erich Schneider)
- Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk,alt.answers,news.answers
- Subject: alt.cyberpunk Frequently Asked Questions list
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- Date: 09 Feb 1997 19:50:08 -0600
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- Summary: answers to frequently asked questions about "cyberpunk" artistic and social movements
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- Archive-name: cyberpunk-faq
- Last-modified: 12/18/1996
-
- Frequently Asked Questions on alt.cyberpunk
- Assembled by Erich Schneider (erich@bush.cs.tamu.edu)
- Posted every two weeks
-
- This is a FAQ list for alt.cyberpunk. It is inspired by, but is not a
- direct descendant of, the previous unofficial FAQ, originally compiled
- by Andy Hawks, and later edited by Tim Oerting.
-
- I have been an alt.cyberpunk reader since 1988, and have seen many a
- FAQ get asked in my time. I am dedicated to answering your questions
- and keeping this document up to date and available. If you have
- comments, criticisms, additions, questions, or just general invective,
- send to erich@bush.cs.tamu.edu. (I especially welcome reports of
- "broken links", either in the ASCII or HTML versions.) Send to that
- address as well if you would like the latest version of this document.
- The latest archived version is available as
- "rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/cyberpunk-faq". There is also a
- version that has been marked up with the HTML markup language, and is
- suitable for viewing with World Wide Web browsers like Netscape Navigator
- and Microsoft Explorer; the URL is
- "http://bush.cs.tamu.edu/~erich/alt.cp.faq.html".
-
- A vast number of the "answers" here should be prefixed with an "in my
- opinion". It would be ridiculous for me to claim to be an ultimate
- cyberpunk authority.
-
- (A note on filenames: files or directories listed as being available
- by anonymous FTP are in the format "hostname:filename". Thus, the
- filename above (for this FAQ list itself) indicates the host is
- "rtfm.mit.edu" and the filename is "/pub/usenet/news.answers/cyberpunk-faq".
- Filenames of this type will always be given in quotes, to avoid
- problems with trailing periods.)
-
- ---
- 1. What is cyberpunk, the literary movement?
- 2. What is cyberpunk, the subculture?
- 3. What is cyberspace?
- How does it relate to today's "net" and "virtual reality"?
- 4. Cyberpunk books
- 5. Magazines about cyberpunk and related topics
- 6. Cyberpunk in visual media (movies and TV)
- What about movies based on Gibson's stories?
- Gibson's _Alien 3_ script?
- 7. _Blade Runner_
- 8. Cyberpunk music. What about Billy Idol's album?
- 9. What is [famous person]'s email address?
- 10. What is this "PGP" everyone is talking about?
- 11. Agrippa: what, and where, is it?
- 12. Other on-line resources
- ---
- 1. What is cyberpunk, the literary movement?
-
- Gardner Dozois, one of the editors of _Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction
- Magazine_ during the early '80s, is generally acknowledged as the
- first person to popularize the term "cyberpunk" describing a body of
- literature. Dozois doesn't claim to have coined the term; he says he
- picked it up "on the street somewhere". It is probably no coincidence
- that Bruce Bethke wrote a short story titled "Cyberpunk" in 1980,
- submitted it then to _Asimov's_ when Dozois may have been doing first
- readings, and got it published in _Amazing_ in 1983, when Dozois was
- editor of _1983 Year's Best SF_ and would be expected to be reading
- the major SF magazines. But as Bethke says, "who gives a rat's ass,
- anyway?!". (Bethke is not really a cyberpunk author; in mid-1995 he
- published _Headcrash_, which he calls "a cybernetically-aware
- comedy". Thanks to Bruce for his help on this issue.)
-
- Before its christening, the "cyberpunk movement", known to its members
- as "The Movement", had existed for quite some time, centered around
- Bruce Sterling's samizdat, _Cheap Truth_. Authors like Sterling,
- Rudy Rucker, and John Shirley submitted articles pseudonymously to this
- newsletter, hyping the works of people in the group and vigorously
- attacking the "SF mainstream". This helped form the core "movement
- consciousness". (The run of _Cheap Truth_ is available by anonymous
- FTP in the directory "ftp.io.com:/pub/usr/shiva/SMOF-BBS/cheap.truth".)
-
- Cyberpunk literature, in general, deals with marginalized people in
- technologically-enhanced cultural "systems". In cyberpunk stories'
- settings, there is usually a "system" which dominates the lives of
- most "ordinary" people, be it an oppresive government, a group of
- large, paternalistic corporations, or a fundamentalist religion. These
- systems are enhanced by certain technologies (today advancing at a
- rate that is bewildering to most people), particularly "information
- technology" (computers, the mass media), making the system better at
- keeping those within it inside it. Often this technological system
- extends into its human "components" as well, via brain implants,
- prosthetic limbs, cloned or genetically engineered organs, etc. Humans
- themselves become part of "the Machine". This is the "cyber" aspect of
- cyberpunk.
-
- However, in any cultural system, there are always those who live on
- its margins, on "the Edge": criminals, outcasts, visionaries, or those
- who simply want freedom for its own sake. Cyberpunk literature focuses
- on these people, and often on how they turn the system's technological
- tools to their own ends. This is the "punk" aspect of cyberpunk.
-
- The best cyberpunk works are distinguished from previous work with
- similar themes by a certain style. The setting is urban, the mood is
- dark and pessimistic. Concepts are thrown at the reader without
- explanation, much like new developments are thrown at us in our
- everyday lives. There is often a sense of moral ambiguity; simply
- fighting "the system" (to topple it, or just to stay alive) does not
- make the main characters "heroes" or "good" in the traditional sense.
-
- ---
- 2. What is cyberpunk, the subculture?
-
- Spurred on by cyberpunk literature, in the mid-1980's certain groups
- of people started referring to themselves as cyberpunk, because they
- correctly noticed the seeds of the fictional "techno-system" in
- Western society today, and because they identified with the
- marginalized characters in cyberpunk stories. Within the last few
- years, the mass media has caught on to this, spontaneously dubbing
- certain people and groups "cyberpunk". Specific subgroups which are
- identified with cyberpunk are:
-
- Hackers, Crackers, and Phreaks: "Hackers" are the "wizards" of the
- computer community; people with a deep understanding of how their
- computers work, and can do things with them that seem
- "magical". "Crackers" are the real-world analogues of the "console
- cowboys" of cyberpunk fiction; they break in to other people's
- computer systems, without their permission, for illicit gain or simply
- for the pleasure of exercising their skill. "Phreaks" are those who do
- a similar thing with the telephone system, coming up with ways to
- circumvent phone companies' calling charges and doing clever things
- with the phone network. All three groups are using emerging computer
- and telecommunications technology to satisfy their individualist
- goals.
-
- Cypherpunks: These people think a good way to bollix "The System" is
- through cryptography and cryptosystems. They believe widespread use of
- extremely hard-to-break coding schemes will create "regions of privacy"
- that "The System" cannot invade.
-
- Ravers: These are the folks who use synthesized and sampled music,
- computer-generated psychedelic ("cyberdelic") art, and designer drugs
- to create massive all-night dance parties and love-fests in empty
- warehouses.
-
- However, one person's "cyberpunk" is another's everyday obnoxious
- teenager with some technical skill thrown in, or just someone looking
- for the latest trend to identify with. This has led many people
- to look at self-designated "cyberpunks" in a negative light. Also,
- there are those who claim that "cyberpunk" is undefinable (which
- in some sense it is, being concerned with outsiders and rebels), and
- resent the mass media's use of the label, seeing it as a cynical
- marketing ploy.
-
- ---
- 3. What is cyberspace?
- How does it relate to today's "net" and "virtual reality"?
-
- To my knowledge, the term "cyberspace" was first used by William
- Gibson in his story "Burning Chrome". That work first describes users
- using devices called "cyberdecks" to override their normal sensory
- organs, presenting them with a full-sensory interface to the world
- computer network; when doing so, said users are "in cyberspace". (The
- concept had appeared prior to Gibson, most notably in Vernor Vinge's
- story "True Names".) "Cyberspace" is thus the metaphorical "place"
- where one "is" when accessing the world computer net.
-
- Even though Gibson's vision of how cyberspace operates is in some
- senses absurd, it has stimulated many in the computing community. The
- word "cyberspace" is becoming commonly used in the "mainstream world"
- in reference to the emergent world-wide computer network (especially
- the Internet). Also, some researchers in the "virtual reality" area of
- computer science are trying to implement something like Gibson's
- information space. However, "cyberspace" is also used to refer to any
- computer-generated VR environment, even if its purpose is not
- "accessing the net".
- ---
- 4. Cyberpunk books
-
- The following is intended to be a short list of the best in-print
- cyberpunk works. Note that quite a few works written before 1980 have
- been retroactively labelled "cyberpunk", because of stylistic
- similarities (like Pynchon's _Gravity's Rainbow_), or similar themes
- (Brunner's _The Shockwave Rider_, Delany's _Nova_).
-
- William Gibson's _Neuromancer_, about a cracker operating in
- cyberspace, a cybernetically-enhanced bodyguard/mercenary, and a pair
- of mysterious AIs, got the ball rolling as far as cyberpunk is
- concerned. It won the Hugo, Nebula, P. K. Dick, Seiun, and Ditmar awards,
- something no other SF work has done. Gibson wrote two sequels in the
- same setting, _Count Zero_ and _Mona Lisa Overdrive_.
-
- Gibson also has a collection of short stories, _Burning Chrome_, which
- contains three stories in _Neuromancer_'s setting, as well as several
- others, such as the excellent "The Winter Market" and "Dogfight".
-
- Gibson's two most recent works are _Virtual Light_ and _Idoru_; they
- share a setting (San Francisco and Tokyo, respectively, of the near
- future) and a few characters, but are otherwise independent. Compare
- to his first trilogy, the technology they posit is less advanced in
- some ways and they are more theme-driven than plot-driven, but they
- deal with many of the same concerns as other cyberpunk works. ("Idoru"
- is a Japanese borrowing of the English "idol", and refers to a
- media-company-manufactured pop-music star, a "virtual" example of
- which plays a prominent role in _Idoru_.)
-
- Bruce Sterling's anthology _Crystal Express_ contains all of the
- "Shaper/Mechanist" short stories about the future humanity and
- "post-humanity". Those short stories are also available with
- _Schismatrix_, a Shaper/Mechanist novel, in the combined volume
- _Schismatrix Plus_. Also to be found in _Crystal Express_ is
- "Green Days in Brunei", a story which shares the setting of
- Sterling's novel _Islands in the Net_. Both are near-future
- extrapolations in worlds very similar to our own. Sterling also
- has another collection in print, _Globalhead_.
-
- Sterling edited _Mirrorshades: A Cyberpunk Anthology_, which contains
- stories by many authors; some are questionably cyberpunk, but it has
- some real gems ("Mozart in Mirrorshades" being one).
-
- Sterling's latest novel is _Holy Fire_, set in a "gerontocratic" late
- 21st century Earth dominated by the "medical-industrial complex", and
- focuses on a group of young European artists, hackers, and intellectuals
- determined to go their own way in a world dominated by elderly wealth.
-
- Gibson and Sterling collaboratively wrote _The Difference Engine_, a
- novel called "steampunk" by some; it deals with many cyberpunk themes
- by using an alternate 19th-century Britain where Babbage's mechanical
- computer technology has been fully developed.
-
- _Snow Crash_, by Neal Stephenson, carries cyberpunk to a humorous
- extreme; what else can one say about a work where the Mafia delivers
- pizza and the main character's name is "Hiro Protagonist"?
-
- Larry McCaffrey edited an anthology, _Storming the Reality Studio_,
- which has snippets of many cyberpunk works, as well as critical
- articles about cyberpunk, and a fairly good bibliography. Other works
- of criticism are Bukatman's _Terminal Identity_ and Slusser and
- Shippey's _Fiction 2000: Cyberpunk and the Future of Narrative_.
-
- Some other good cyberpunk works include:
-
- Walter Jon Williams, _Hardwired_: a smuggler who pilots a hovertank
- decides to take on the Orbital Corporations that control his world.
-
- Walter Jon Williams, _Voice of the Whirlwind_: a corporate soldier's
- clone tries to discover what happened to his "original copy".
-
- Greg Bear, _Blood Music_: a genetic engineer "uplifts" some of his own
- blood cells to human-level intelligence, with radical consequences.
-
- Pat Cadigan, _Synners_: hackers and other misfits pursue a deadly new
- "virus" when direct brain interfaces first appear in near-future LA.
-
- (Some good out-of-print works to look for are Cadigan's _Mindplayers_,
- Michael Swanwick's _Vacuum Flowers_, Daniel Keyes Moran's _The Long
- Run_, and Vernor Vinge's short story "True Names".)
-
- ---
- 5. Magazines about cyberpunk and related topics
-
- Some magazines which are popular among cyberpunk fans are:
-
- _Mondo 2000_
- P O Box 10171
- Berkeley, CA 94709-0171
- Voice (510)845-9018, Fax (510)649-9630
- Editorials: editor@mondo2000.com
- Subscriptions: subscriptions@mondo2000.com
- Advertising: advertising@mondo2000.com
- HTTP site at "http://www.mondo2000.com/"
-
- Many cyberpunk fans have an uneasy relationship with _Mondo 2000_;
- their esteem for it varies according to the amount of technical
- content and affected hipness in the articles. Nonetheless, if anything
- could claim to be the cyberpunk "magazine of record", this is it.
- With the departure of many of those providing creative impetus
- (notably, R.U. Sirius), its days may be numbered.
-
- _bOING-bOING_
- 11288 Ventura Boulevard #818
- Studio City, CA 91604
- Voice (310)854-5747, Fax (310)289-4922
- mark@well.com
- HTTP site at "http://www.well.com/user/mark/"
-
- _bOING-bOING_'s status is uncertain; most of its writers now work for
- _Wired_, it has ceased newsstand distribution and no longer offers
- subscriptions. However, if one can get a copy, it's worth looking at.
-
- _Wired_
- P.O. Box 191826
- San Francisco, CA 94119
- Voice (415)904-0660, Fax (415)904-0669
- Credcard subscriptions: 1-800-SO-WIRED (1-800-769-4733)
- Information: info@wired.com
- Subscriptions: subscriptions@wired.com
- HTTP site at "http://www.hotwired.com"
-
- The magazine which, through aggressive positioning, has managed to
- become the "magazine of record" for modern techno-aware culture. It's
- aimed more at technically-oriented professionals with disposable
- income, but many cyberpunk fans like the articles on network- and
- future-related topics.
-
- _SF EYE_
- P.O. Box 18539
- Asheville, NC 28814
- HTTP site at "http://www.empathy.com/eyeball".
-
- Described by some as the "house organ of the cyberpunk movement",
- founded by Stephen P. Brown at the urging of his friends Gibson,
- Shirley, and Sterling. Published semi-annually, and contains a regular
- column by Sterling.
-
- _Phrack_
- 603 W. 13th #1A-278
- Austin, TX 78701
- phrack@well.com
- FTP site at "ftp.fc.net:/pub/phrack"
- HTTP site at "http://freeside.com/phrack.html"
-
- _2600 Magazine_
- Subscription correspondence: 2600 Subscription Dept.
- P.O. Box 752, Middle Island, NY, 11953-0752
- Letters/Article submissions: 2600 Editorial Dept.
- P.O. Box 99, Middle Island, NY, 11953-0099
- 2600@well.com
- FTP site at "ftp.2600.com:/pub/"
- HTTP site at "http://www.2600.com/"
-
- Two mainstays of the computer underground. _Phrack_ deals more with people
- and goings-on in the community, while _2600_ focuses on technical
- information.
-
- ---
- 6. Cyberpunk in visual media (movies and TV)
- What about movies based on Gibson's stories?
- Gibson's _Alien 3_ script?
-
- TV gave us the late, lamented _Max Headroom_, which featured oodles of
- cyberpunk concepts. The Bravo cable network and the Sci-Fi Channel are
- rerunning the few episodes that were made. TV also gave us the somewhat
- bloated _Wild Palms_, with a "cyberspace", evil corporations, and a
- cameo by William Gibson.
-
- Also shown on the Sci-Fi Channel is _TekWar_, a series based on
- William Shatner's "Tek" novels, which evolved from a set of TV movies
- based on those novels. While possessing some tranditionally cyberpunk
- elements and extended "cyberspace runs", they (or at least the TV
- movies) tend to boil down to good guys vs. bad guys cop
- stories. (_TekLords_ features a central plot element that those who
- have read _Snow Crash_ will recognize.)
-
- _Blade Runner_, based loosely on Philip K. Dick's novel _Do Androids
- Dream of Electric Sheep?_, is considered the archetypical cyberpunk
- movie. (Gibson has said that the visuals in _Blade Runner_ match his
- vision of the urban future in _Neuromancer_.) Few other movies have
- matched it; some that are considered cyberpunk or marginally so are
- _Alien_ and its sequels, _Freejack_, _The Lawnmower Man_, _Until the
- End of the World_, the "Terminator" movies, _Total Recall_, _Strange
- Days_, and _Brainstorm_.
-
- Cyberpunk stories can also be found in Japanese _anime_ films,
- including the _Bubblegum Crisis_ series and _Ghost in the Shell_.
-
- There is an hourlong documentary called "Cyberpunk" available on video
- from Mystic Fire Video. It features some interview-style conversation
- with Gibson, is generally low-budget, and the consensus opinion on the
- net is that it isn't really worth anyone's time. Gibson is apparently
- embarrassed by it.
-
- Regarding films based on Gibson stories: At one point a fly-by-night
- operation called "Cabana Boys Productions" had the rights to
- _Neuromancer_; this is why the front of the _Neuromancer_ computer
- game's box claims it is "soon to be a motion picture from Cabana
- Boys". The rights have since reverted to Gibson, who is sitting on
- them at the moment.
-
- Gibson's short story "Johnny Mnemonic" was made into a big-budget
- full-length motion picture. Gibson himself wrote the screenplay and
- was a close consultant to the director; the result "has his blessing",
- so to speak. As might be expected, there are many additions to the
- short story as well as outright differences. The film contains
- elements not only from the original story, but also from _Neuromancer_
- and _Virtual Light_; there is much more violent action, and the ending
- is more upbeat. Very significantly, Molly does not appear in the film;
- her place is taken by a character named "Jane" (who has no inset
- eyeglasses or retractable claws) due to issues surrounding use of the
- Molly character in any future _Neuromancer_ production. (The film was
- not a critical or box-office success in the U.S., which Gibson has
- partly blamed on the post-production editing; he claims the longer
- Japanese release is the better one.)
-
- "The Gernsback Continuum" was adapted into a short (15 minute) film in
- Britain; it has been shown on some European TV networks, but I don't
- know if it's available in the US. Rumors also abound that "New Rose
- Hotel" will be brought to the big screen by various directors. Other
- rumors claim that _Count Zero_ will be made into a film titled
- _The Zen Differential_.
-
- William Gibson wrote one of the many scripts for _Alien 3_. According
- to him, only one detail from his script made its way to the actual
- film: the bar codes visible on the backs of the prisoners' shaved
- heads. A synopsis of Gibson's script can be found in part 3 of the
- _Alien_ Movies FAQ list, available as
- "rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/movies/alien-faq/part3".
- The whole thing is available as
- "cathouse.org:/pub/cathouse/movies/scripts/alien.iii".
-
- ---
- 7. _Blade Runner_
-
- There is a _Blade Runner_ FAQ which is available via anonymous FTP as
- "rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/movies/bladerunner-faq",
- and at URL "http://www.uq.oz.au/~csmchapm/bladerunner/". It
- answers many of the more common questions. Here are short answers to
- the most common.
-
- a. There are several alternate versions. The original theatrical
- release in the US omitted the Batty-Tyrell eye-gouging sequence and a
- few other bits; these were added back in Europe and the video
- release. In 1992, a "director's cut" was released, now available on
- video, which omits the Deckard voiceover and the "happy" ending, and
- reinserts the "unicorn scene". Before that, however, a different cut
- (known as the "workprint") was shown at two theaters, one in LA, the
- other in San Francisco, for a brief period; this has a different title
- sequence and soundtrack, some different dialogue, no voiceover and no
- happy ending, but no unicorn sequence. (In my opinion, it was the
- best version.)
-
- b. The 5/6 replicants problem: This is widely accepted as an editing
- glitch which slipped through to the release. The film originally
- featured a fifth "live" replicant, "Mary", who was later deleted. In
- the workprint, the line "one got fried ..." is changed to "two got
- fried ...". Bryant does not include Rachel in the original six escaped
- replicants. However ...
-
- c. Internal clues, such as lack of emotion, the photographs, and the
- reflective eyes, do suggest that Deckard is a replicant. However, this
- is not _explicitly_ stated in any cut. The "unicorn scene" gives this
- theory more weight.
-
- An excellent resource for any fan is Paul Sammon's in-depth book
- _Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner_, which goes over the
- differences between the various versions in minute detail.
-
- K.W. Jeter has written two novels which are sequels to the movie:
- _Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human_ and _Blade Runner: Replicant
- Night_. One's judgement of the "appropriateness" of this may be
- influenced by the fact that Jeter was a good friend of Philip
- K. Dick's. The first sequel deals very directly with the "extra
- replicant" and "Deckard a replicant?" issues. The second sequel
- involves Deckard's participation in making a movie about his
- experiences hunting Roy Batty et. al. (as seen by us in the movie).
- More sequels by Jeter are apparently to come.
-
- ---
- 8. Cyberpunk music. What about Billy Idol's album?
-
- There is a bit of confusion as to what "cyberpunk music" really is. Is
- it "music that deals with cyberpunk themes", or "music that people in
- a cyberpunk future would listen to"?
-
- Those who claim there _is_ cyberpunk music usually say the fast,
- synthesized, and sample-oriented forms such as techno, rave, and
- industrial music are "cyberpunk".
-
- In late 1993 Billy Idol released an album called "Cyberpunk", which
- garnered some media attention; it seems to have been a commercial and
- critical flop. Billy made some token appearances on the net, in
- alt.cyberpunk and on the WELL, but his public interest in the area seems
- to have waned. No matter how sincere his intentions might have been,
- scorn and charges of commercialization have been heaped upon him
- in this and other forums.
- ---
- 9. What is [famous person]'s email address?
-
- William Gibson has no public e-mail address. In fact, he doesn't
- really care about computers all that much; he didn't use one until he
- wrote _Mona Lisa Overdrive_, and was thinking of kids playing
- videogames when he developed his "cyberspace".
-
- Some authors who _are_ on the net (and some of their works, if not previously
- mentioned):
-
- - Tom Maddox (tmaddox@halcyon.com) (_Halo_)
- - Bruce Sterling (bruces@well.com)
- - Rudy Rucker (rucker@mathcs.sjsu.edu) (_Software_, _Wetware_, _Transreal!_)
- - Vernor Vinge (vinge@vrinimi.com)
- - Pat Cadigan (cadigan@aol.com)
- - John Shirley (rickenharp@aol.com) (_Eclipse_ trilogy, _Heatseeker_)
- - Walter Jon Williams (walter@thuntek.net)
-
- For courtesy's sake, please don't abuse these addresses; most people
- have better things to do with their time than answer floods of fan mail.
- ---
- 10. What is this "PGP" everyone is talking about?
-
- "PGP" is short for "Pretty Good Privacy", a public-key cryptosystem
- that is the mainstay of the cypherpunk movement. "OK, so what's a
- public-key cryptosystem?", you now ask.
-
- A public-key cryptosystem allows one to send secret messages with the
- assurance that the receiver will know who the sender was. (This is
- important if, say, you are sending your credit-card number to buy an
- expensive item; ordinary e-mail is somewhat easy to fake.) The message
- is said to be "signed" by a "digital signature". Consider two people,
- Alice and Bob. Each has two mathematical functions, constructed via two
- "keys", A and B. A message encrypted with key A can be decrypted only
- by key B, and a message encrypted with key B can be decrypted only by
- key A. Key A is kept secret, known only to its owner, and is called
- the "private" key; key B is given to anyone who wants it, and is
- called the "public" key.
-
- Suppose Alice is sending a message to Bob. She first encrypts it with
- her private key, and then encrypts the result with Bob's public
- key. This is then sent to Bob. Bob decrypts the message using his
- private key, and decrypts the result with Alice's public key. The fact
- that he was able to decrypt using his private key means Alice inteded
- the message for him, and that only he can read it; the fact that
- Alice's public key decrypted the result means that Alice was the true
- author of the message (since only Alice has the required private key
- to encrypt).
-
- Thus, when you see a "PGP public key block" at the end of someone's
- Usenet posts, that's the "public key" that you can use to encrypt
- secret messages to them.
- ---
- 11. What is "Agrippa" and where can I get it?
-
- "Agrippa: A Book of the Dead", the textual component of an art
- project, was written by William Gibson in 1992. Gibson wrote a
- semi-autobiographical poem, which was placed onto a computer disk.
- This disk was part of a limited release of special "reader" screens;
- the reader units themselves had etchings by Dennis Ashbaugh which were
- light-sensitive, and slowly changed from one form to another, final,
- form, when exposed to light. Also, the text of the poem, when read,
- was erased from the disk - it could only be read once.
-
- On the net, opinion on the Agrippa project ranged from "what an
- interesting concept; it challenges what we think 'art' should be" to
- "Gibson has sold out to the artsy-fartsy crowd" to "Gibson is right to
- make a quick buck off these art people".
-
- Naturally (some would say according to Gibson's plan), someone got
- hold of the text of "Agrippa" and posted it to Usenet. A public copy
- can be found in the file
- "english-server.hss.cmu.edu:/English.Server/Fiction/Gibson-Agrippa".
- The author of this FAQ has a copy at
- "bush.cs.tamu.edu:/pub/misc/erich/agrippa", as well as a copy of a
- parody, "agr1ppa", in the same directory. They are available to all who
- ask for them.
- ---
- 12. Other on-line resources
-
- A good first place to check for information on just about anything is
- the Usenet FAQ repository at "rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/". It's also
- good to try one of the large WWW indices such as Yahoo
- ("http://www.yahoo.com/search.html") and Alta Vista
- ("http://altavista.digital.com/").
-
- The Rutgers SF archive, at "sflovers.rutgers.edu:/pub/sf-lovers/",
- contains many general SF-related items. It can also be accessed via
- Web browser at "http://sflovers.rutgers.edu/Web/SFRG/".
-
- Some author-related sites:
- - Pat Cadigan info at
- "http://www.wmin.ac.uk/~fowlerc/patcadigan.html"
- - William Gibson web site at "http://www.vkool.com/gibson/",
- bibliography at "http://www.slip.net/~spage/gibson/biblio.htm"
- - Richard Kadrey's novel _Metrophage_ at
- "http://gopher.well.com:70/1/Publications/authors/kadrey/metro/".
- - Tom Maddox's novel _Halo_ at
- "http://gopher.well.com:70/1/Publications/authors/maddox/halo/".
- - Daniel Keys Moran info at "http://www.kithrup.com/dkm/"
- - Rudy Rucker's home page at
- "http://http://www.mathcs.sjsu.edu/faculty/rucker/rucker.html"
- - John Shirley info at "http://www.darkecho.com/JohnShirley.html".
- - Bruce Sterling info at
- "http://riceinfo.rice.edu/projects/RDA/VirtualCity/Sterling/index.html",
- "http://gopher.well.com:70/1/Publications/authors/Sterling/",
- FTP site at "oak.zilker.net:/bruces/" (includes an FTP-able copy of
- his nonfiction book _The Hacker Crackdown_, about the attacks on
- the "computer underground" in 1990).
- - Walter Jon Williams' home page at "http://www.thuntek.net/~walter/index.htm"
-
- A Web site containing pointers to information on the _Alien_ movies
- is at URL "http://dutial.twi.tudelft.nl/~alien/alien.html". More
- sites devoted to specific movies can be found by looking at
- those movies' entries in the Internet Movie Database at URL
- "http://us.imdb.org".
-
- "rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/music/industrial-faq/" contains
- the two-part industrial music FAQ list from "rec.music.industrial".
-
- "hyperreal.com:/" has items of interest to ravers and about the rave
- scene in general.
-
- Survival Research Labs, that incomparable group of artists and
- hardware hackers, has an HTTP site at "http://www.srl.org/". Another
- SRL site can to be found at "http://www.construct.net/projects/srl/".
-
- "ftp.csua.berkeley.edu:/pub/cypherpunks/" has many cryptography items,
- including a directory containing the latest version of PGP for several
- platforms. RSA Data Security's FTP site at "ftp.rsa.com" also contains
- cryptography materials. FAQ lists covering cryptographic topics can be
- found in the directory "rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/sci.crypt/".
- An HTML page with pointers to these and many other references is
- Fran Litterio's "Cryptography, PGP, and Your Privacy" at
- "http://world.std.com/~franl/crypto.html".
-
- _Wired_ magazine's HTTP site (at "www.wired.com") has, among
- other things, complete contents of many back issues available online
- (at "http://www.wired.com/wired/toc.html").
-
- Many files of relevance to the real-life "computer undergrond" and the
- hacking/phreaking communities can be found in one of the "Computer
- Underground Digest" sites. One of these is at
- "etext.archive.umich.edu:/pub/CuD/", and includes a complete set of
- issues of _Phrack_ magazine. The Digest itself has an HTTP site at
- "http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~cudigest"; new issues are posted to the
- Usenet newsgroup "comp.society.cu-digest". _Phrack_ issues can also be
- had via _Phrack_'s HTTP site, at "http://freeside.com/phrack.html".
-
- Happy exploring!
- ---
- End of alt.cyberpunk FAQ.
- --
- Erich Schneider erich@bush.cs.tamu.edu http://bush.cs.tamu.edu/~erich
-
- "You are a true believer. Blessings of the State; blessings of the
- masses. Thou art a subject of the Divine, created in the image of
- Man, by the masses, for the masses. Let us be thankful we have
- commerce. Buy more. Buy more now. Buy. And be happy."
- - Confession booth blessing, _THX-1138_
-